Hip Hop Hits the Screen: Cuban History Through The Lens Of Music

www.brunswicktrinidad.org

BRUNSWICK, ME — Brunswick Trinidad Sister City Association presents filmmaker and social commentator Jauretsi Saizarbitoria, Thursday, November 4, 7:00 at Morrell Meeting Room at Curtis Memorial Library in Brunswick. The event is free and open to the public.

Ms. Saizarbitoria will share a multi-media presentation titled Cuban History Through the Lens of Music, speaking of the culture of music in Cuba, specifically her impressions of how new genres of music are born in response to political and cultural change.

Saizarbitoria is a co-director of the 2007 non-fiction feature East of Havana of which the New York Times wrote, “So much of American pop thrives on a bratty facsimile of courage that when you see the real deal, it’s a revelation. East of Havana is the real deal.” Ms. Saizarbitoria spent more than two years working on the project, much of that time in her family’s homeland of Cuba. Clips and discussion of the film will be included in her presentation.

As is true for many Cuban-Americans, Ms.Saizarbitoria’s keen sense of cultural awareness is shaped by two countries. She was born of Cuban parents and raised in Miami and is now active in the vibrant social scene of New York dispersing cultural news through her work as a videographer, film director, event planner, deejay, and blogger.

Blending her main interests of music, Cuba, global affairs, youth culture and film, Saizarbitoria will speak of how the culture of music is interwoven with political climate in Cuba, be it from Afro-Cuban music roots in slavery, rumba’s history with 1950’s mafia gambling, or Cuban hip-hop during what is known as Cuba’s “special period” following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

Ms. Saizarbitria's presentation represents the vision of the Brunswick Trinidad Sister City Association to foster a spirit of friendship and cooperation between citizens of Trinidad, Cuba and the Brunswick area, person to person and community to community. The Brunswick Trinidad Sister City Association promotes creative and constructive non-political interactions with the people of Cuba, experiencing their culture and sharing our culture with them; recognizing and appreciating both the differences and the similarities.